Is it possible to quantify emission potential from high resolution monitoring of leachate dynamics?

Is it possible to quantify emission potential from high resolution monitoring of leachate dynamics?

Heimovaara, T.J.
Bun, A.
van Turnhout, A.G.
Konstantaki, L.A.
Baviskar, S.M.

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Geoscience & Engineering

2012-12-31

Modern sanitary landfills are one the most important final storage solutions for safely storing waste in modern society. Many countries around the world have implemented regulations in order to protect the environment from adverse emissions from the landfills. Generally these regulations require the installation of protective barriers which inhibit contaminants within the waste from migrating to the surroundings. After the active phase of landfilling, regulations require after-care to be carried out the landfill in order to ensure that no migration of contaminants take place. The after-care can be considered to be completed when the landfill no longer poses a threat to human health and the environment. The question that has to be answered is, when does a landfill no longer pose a threat to human health and the environment? Although it is not easy to answer to this last question, we would like to try. First we assume that any technical barrier implemented in order to prevent migration of contaminants to the surroundings of the landfill will eventually fail. If in such a case the landfill still contains a significant amount of emission potential, we can be certain that a threat to the surroundings will occur. Therefore, the only way we can assume that the landfill no longer poses a threat to human health and the environment is when we can ascertain that the emission potential within the waste has reduced to levels at which the migration of contaminants has become very low. It is important to realise that emission levels will never be really zero so “acceptable” emission levels need to be defined. These levels have to be based on criteria which protect the surrounding ecosystem and need to be implemented in regulations. Quantification of the remaining emission potential is a major challenge. This paper presents the approach we are investigating in order to address this challenge.

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Universitetstryckeriet

978-91-7439-462-7

Abstract Proceedings of the 7th Intercontinental Landfill Research Symposium (ICLRS), Sunderbyn, Sweden, 25-27 June 2012

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2012 The Authors